Monday, August 28, 2006

bryan caplan

A while back Bryan Caplan was asking bloggers to post their class auto biographies. Here's his. My favorite bit:

For my adult life to have been radically different, I would probably have needed to grow up in an absolutely poor family in the Third World, not a relatively poor family in the First World. My instinct in that situation would be to learn English and migrate to the U.S., but immigration restrictions would get in the way. This realization is part of the reason I have so much more sympathy for immigrants than I do for low-skilled Americans.

You don't see a lot of this: Citizens of rich countries acknowledging their blind luck. In fact this kind of comment attracts a large amount of hostility. This is pretty much my view:

What about low-skilled Americans? They were born in the U.S. and speak fluent English. Let them count their blessings.